The corporate data landscape is more complex than ever before. There’s a heightened regulatory environment. International mergers force you to integrate disparate systems and processes.

Information is power, but only if it’s retrievable and translatable. It’s safe to say that all of your teams and departments are capturing and storing critical data. Marketing can tell you the cost of the two promotions you launched in second quarter. Operations can quantify the cost of increased call center volume. Accounting can quantify the increase in third quarter receivables. But, chances are, nobody can tell you which promotion generated the most profitable new customers because their systems don’t speak the same language. Lack of data governance equals missed opportunities.

Data without governance is like a symphony without a conductor.The individual players may be performing their parts, but if they’re not in concert, it’s just so much noise. Good data governance means that various business processes and technology components are capable of synchronizing data across departments, functions and systems. Yours must be a consistent, repeatable process that can be leveraged to not only answer your current questions, but future questions as well.

Poor data governance invites self-inflicted risk and pain. By failing to quantify the full cost of a marketing promotion (direct costs associated with identifying the target and executing the promotion, as well as indirect costs like increased call center volume), a financial institution will be unable to accurately price the product in the marketplace. Due to the information gaps, they risk pricing too low and saddling themselves with a long – term loss.

Good data governance yields profit opportunities. By understanding all of the cost implications of a particular marketing promotion, and by correctly identifying the features that would attract the most desirable customers, a financial institution can achieve more engagement at less cost, maximizing product revenue and attracting new customers that would be profitable long term.